Pop-Ed: Is Jon Gosselin Trying to Be Unlikeable?

This week, Jon Gosselin filed legal papers in Pennsylvania challenging ex-wife Kate for custody of their eight children. In the filing, he alleges she abuses the custody scheduling laid out in their arbitration process and claims she is not being completely honest about her income. His lawyer also reportedly called her an "absentee mom" due to her commitments to 'Dancing with the Stars.'

Ugh. Public opinion of the Gosselins has never been exactly stellar, but why would Jon -- just when he'd arguably traded places with Kate to become the less publicly loathed of the two -- go out of his way to make himself the bad guy again? We suspect it's because Kate is getting all the tabloid headlines these days. But that begs another question: Why are both Gosselins, people who've been in the public eye for years, so incapable of gauging the public's good graces? Or is it really better to be famous and hated than to not be famous at all?

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Jon Gosselin, a man detested by, you know, most reasonable people, had a big opportunity to sway public opinion in his favor. By simply supporting his ex-wife, he could have endeared himself to a public that has deemed him a deadbeat in the wake of his very-public womanizing and subsequent shaming.

Further, Nancy Grace-related (and isn't that really the best kind), shaming below -- just for fun:

He could have offered to pick up some of the slack in caring for his own children while Kate's busy dancing, writing books and developing TV shows. Like her or not, those things feed eight little mouths, and Jon (who does what exactly?) would have been smart to champion her efforts. He squandered an opportunity to be the bigger man.

Why? Because controversy lands people in the tabloids, of course, and scandal sells magazines (look, we're talking about it RIGHT NOW!) -- so it's off to the fame-monger races for Jon. We just don't understand why both Jon and Kate seem to knowingly choose to be incredibly famous for being deeply disliked by the public, as if it were more satisfying than being moderately famous while being a reasonable person.

We're not PR experts, but we know someone who is: PopEater's own Rob Shuter, who once represented Jessica Simpson. "Jon and Kate are the best examples of what happens when you become famous too fast. They are like me and you," he says. "Without advisers, publicists and managers to help them understand how every decision they make will be interpreted by the general public. Part of me loves how refreshing it is to see someone so famous without any help understanding fame."

That lack of understanding has translated into neither being able to sustain likable public personas. During the 'Jon & Kate Plus 8' days, Kate was painted as a nag. After the couple separated, Jon galavanted about with younger women while obnoxiously clad in one Ed Hardy T-shirt after another, seemingly ignoring his own responsibilities as a father while chain smoking in the south of France with Hailey Glassman. (Yuck!) And for a while, Kate's image rebounded as a result; she was a woman scorned, and people sympathized.

But it didn't take Kate long to oversaturate the media with countless appearances. She quickly proved just as exhausting single as she was married, and we don't find the countless tales of diva-like behavior on the set of 'Dancing with the Stars' all that enchanting.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, Kate, and if you really want to sell as many books as Palin (also, good luck with that), you'd do yourself a world of good by maybe not being so ubiquitous. Who needs to pay for your prose when we get it for free every day on 'Dancing with the Stars,' 'The Insider,' 'The View,' 'Entertainment Tonight,' 'Access Hollywood,' 'Extra' and so on.

Gosselin told USA Today, "I don't consider myself an expert on anything," yet she will soon host a show where she "will profile women inspired by her story who are facing their own challenges." We're not a woman, but her story sometimes makes us want to smash our hand with a hammer.

We wonder if she -- or for that matter, he -- can learn anything from that?

And don't think we deny being complicit in all this. Jon and Kate are perhaps the definition of what Vimeo co-founder Jacob Lodwick dubbed "fameballs" -- "individuals whose fame snowballs because journalists cover what they think other people want them to cover" (via Gawker), despite not really being famous for anything beyond being famous. We did it to ourselves; we gave them a platform, and we created a monster. Oh, look, we're even feeding it right now!

Jon is paying child support. The kids' college funds are taken care of, put in a trust fund by TLC. They don't have to worry about that. Kate is not practicing dancing in her home. Her dancing is a joke anyway. Jon is divorced = he has a right to a girl friend. Kate isn't exactly running around alone. Kate's new show will be a joke too. What right has she to tell other people how to run their lives when she has failed at everything. She needs some lessons. Those kids have to lead a normal life away from the public and some type of home life. They are headed for trouble, having no parents. And then Kate will have excuses that she was not to blame, blah, blah, tears, blah, tears, blah.

Did anyone else watch the show? Kate said that little boys are disgusting and dirty in front of her sons. It got to the point where the girls would say the same thing. She cried on screen that the kids called her by the nanny's name then admitted that she was gone 3 weeks out of 4. Maddy said Daddy was the better parent. Jon was shown to get the kids up, dress them, feed them and play with them while Kate refused to get up before 8 am. Jon asked her more than once to stop doing the show and the kids on film also said they wanted to stop. On one of the last shows Jon suggested cabinets for the new house and Kate said only someone stupid would say that and then the contractor said it was a very good idea. Kate has 3 nannies, private chef, housekeepers and people just to do the laundry, TLC is still paying her. While doing a book tour she said how surprised she was at how addicting the fame is. She is far from a single, struggling mother. She was constantly shown belitting her spouse, hitting him and yelling at him. When she smacked Emeril because he praised Jon and then laughed at someone off camera it told me what type of person she really is. Now she will be all over the place to film her new Twist of Kate show. Will she take her children with her? The show should be named Kate is Twisted.

I have never seen so many freaks in my life as the freaks we have been invaded by from the reality show culture. The Gosselins have to be the worst and are by far, the most disgusting people that walk this earth today. They both need psychiatric treatment for using their children for financial gain. I happened to be surfing channels when I landed on TLC one night and viewed the show for only 5 minutes to see this monster mouth woman rolling her eyes with disgust at a husband with hands folded in his lap as she yapped on and on. I gave them 5 minutes of my time and that is more than they deserved then and now. Whether this reality show phenomenom lives on forever or dies tomorrow, as most fads eventually do, ALL "reality stars" deserve 5 minutes or less star time.

It's mostly the females who root for Kate, egged on by the gutter media, with little regards for the merits of their case. While Jon is no angel, what most gossip pres followers see are what she and TLC project through their well-oiled PR machine. Few outside the immediate family and friends know what either of them are really like.

Kate has turned her back on those who helped her through the couple's toughest times, including her own parents and brother's family. But of course, the sewer media isn't interested in the balanced stuff, nor reality

How is she suppose to provide for those kids, He's broke so that's why he filed those papers, Get a job and stop trying to take money away from the babies. A woman will do just about anything to support her children. He should have been saving all that money he spent on those hoochies.

I think Kate needs to be put down and have her kids taken away. Everything that she does she claims to do it only for the sake of her kids. Going out on dates almost every night, dancing on a show, exposing her childrens entire life to the public just to boast on how corrupted her parenting skills are, getting fake body parts, and it goes on and on.... I feel sorry for Jon only because he has been bullied by a OCD control freak but however, I don't believe that he should gain full custody of the children either.

Nadia, your jealousy is showing. Kate seems to be the better parent. She is working in the best place to earn money right now. It probably won't last for long, so she's getting it while she can. If you were offered some of what she has, I bet you'd do it. Most people would.

To say Kate's kids should be taken away is heartless and cruel. You would rather expose those kids to terrible psychological problems because you don't think Kate's a good parent, but neither is Jon? Soooo, you'd rather stick them in Foster care or worse when they have a pretty great life now. That just makes no sense! I've been taken away from my family - it hurts a whole lot of years later. It would not be a good thing to inflict on innocent kids. Furthermore, to do so would also likely mean splitting them off to more than one Foster home. To even think that way is to me, very heartless!